The Trump administration may be friendly to the fossil fuel industry and skeptical of climate change, but don’t expect California’s rollout of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources to stop anytime soon.

Such was one of the insights of David H. Wright, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the country’s largest municipal utility, when he gave a lecture, Wednesday, March 15, at U.C. Riverside.

“Basically, Sacramento and Washington will be posturing for the next four years, rather than doing things,” said Wright, the former head of Riverside’s electric and water utility, who still lives in Riverside.

The Trump years will be wrought with uncertainty, and federal grant dollars for big-ticket projects will probably be scarce, but California’s aggressive clean energy goals are based on state policies and laws that are independent of who is in the White House, he said at the university’s College of Engineering’s Center for Environmental Research & Technology.

“I wouldn’t expect a huge impact, but it could delay things,” said Wright.

California’s transition to solar, wind and geothermal energy has a forward momentum that started more than a decade ago, and technical trends, he said, tend to outlast the terms of people in elected offices.

The Los Angeles utility he heads with 1.6 million customers has already crossed the threshold 25 percent renewable sources of electricity, and last year its greenhouse gas emissions were 64 percent of what they were in 1990.

Yet, Wright said, he doesn’t believe it is technically feasible for California to have 100 percent renewable sources of electricity by 2045 as would be required under pending legislation introduced last month by state Senate leader Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles.

The existing state law requiring 50 percent renewable by 2030 depends on natural gas plants firing up during the peak use evening hours when solar panels, now the biggest source of alternative energy, stop producing.

Battery storage systems show promise, but now they are too expensive, take up too much room, and don’t give back to the grid for a long period needed to pick up the evening and night demands.

“In theory, it sounds great, but they are just not feasible,” Wright said.

But Wright was passionate about utilities helping usher in an era of non-polluting electric vehicles.

As he put it, “We need to completely electrify the transportation sector.”

Electric vehicles could end Southern California chronic smog problem, reduce carbon emissions and utilize solar energy by charging up vehicles when the sun is high.

The problem now is a lack of charging stations. He said we need the same kind of subsidies for car charging stations — rebates, tax credits, etc. — that had pushed the rollout of solar panels.

Wright also said he will support land use regulations that require electric vehicle charging stations at new apartment buildings and other locations.

Wright added that it is much different running Los Angeles’ utility, where he oversees 9,000 employees than running Riverside’s, which is about a 10th the size.

But smallness had an advantage.

“Riverside seemed much more nimble,” said Wright.

Wright’s talk was part of the Randall Lewis Seminar Series presented by UCR’s Center for Sustainable Suburban Development. It was hosted by former Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge.

David Danelski is an investigative and environmental reporter for The Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California. He has been with the newspaper since 1990 and has previously covered crime, transportation and city government. He is married to Lorrie Cobain, a teacher and staff development specialist for the Riverside Unified School District. The couple has one adult daughter, Rosemary. who lives in New York City.